North Shore, South Shore: The story of the Columbia and the Washington
“You can’t trust anything he would have written.” Gumshoe historians Andrew Buckley and Matt Griffin turn the corner on the trail of the Columbia Expedition and John Kendrick. Columbia Rediviva: A ship built just prior to the Revolution on the South Shore. Her junior partner, Lady Washington: an old sloop built on the North Shore.
Hints at a background in slavery, but the vessel truly carrying the story is in the hands of young man with divided loyalties and a chip on his shoulder.
Locations: Boston, Marshfield, Scituate, Essex, Massachusetts.
Interviews: Peter Drummey, Cynthia Krusell, Justin Demetri, Benjamin Dunham
Boston’s Shea Rose introduces this fourth installment of the new
Hit and Run History series. “Now they’re getting to all the right places, to all the right people,” says Rose, describing the Buckley and Griffin’s progress in following the genesis of the first American voyage ’round the world.
Holding the most precious artifacts from the Columbia Expedition, the
Masachusetts Historical Society is the first stop for host Andrew Buckley and assistant director Matthew Griffin. The original log of junior officer
Robert Haswell, and his painted portrait are among the treasures. Then in the office of MHS Librarian Peter Drummey, while shooting a precise replica of
Columbia, Buckley tells of a larger model in the most unlikely of places.
Soon it is off to the South Shore, to talk with Marshfield Town Historian Cynthia Krusell. Lying between Scituate and Marshfield, the North River was home to Brigg’s shipyard at Hobart’s Landing. This is where the ship Columbia was launched in 1773.
Then we head up to the North Shore to the
Essex Shipbuilding Museum. Justin Demetri and Buckley compare the Chebacco boat style with the plans of the current-day
Lady Washington — the replica of the small sloop that accompanied
Columbia to the Pacific Northwest.
But circling back to historian Ben Dunham, what was the real vessel that carried the story? Robert Haswell’s log, the only first-person account of this first voyage, is called into question. And the background of 2nd in command Robert Gray, a Rhode Islander, is tied to the dying out of the slave trade in that state prior to Columbia’s departure. Before we’ve even left home, we now wonder: Is there any single source we can trust?
Watch “The Ship” here or subscribe to the Hit and Run History video podcast on iTunes.